The August 8th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Mike Trout turns 21, debating Weaver’s case for the AL Cy Young, Garrett Richards suffers a knee injury of unknown severity and much more…
The Story: Reflecting on Mike Trout’s accomplishments now that he is 21 years old.
The Monkey Says: In case you somehow missed it, Trout turned 21 years old yesterday and there were approximately 2 billion articles written about it, 85% of which were just cheap attempts at drawing pageviews. Suffice it to say that he is just as accomplished at 21 as he was right before he turned 21.
The Story: Is Jered Weaver really the best pitcher in the American League?
The Monkey Says: This all comes up because of his 15-1 record, which is a really bad indicator, but some folks still buy into that garbage. That being said, he has been downright unhittable and it shows in his ERA. The knock against him is that he benefits a lot from his home park, which is true, but his 3.11 road ERA is nothing to sneeze at either. Should he really be penalized that much for being such a great fit for Angels Stadium? If you want to knock him for missing nearly a month due to injury, that’s fine. If he and Verlander end up with lines close to what they have now but Verlander has thrown 35 more innings, that is a good bit more value that he is adding that Weaver isn’t. Of course, this all assumes that the voters will take all of this into consideration and history says that a lot of them won’t. Some will be swayed by his win-loss record, some won’t care about his FIP and others will just want to vote for someone other than Verlander because it is fun to vote for someone new.
The Story: Garrett Richards left his Monday night start after just three innings after tweaking his knee.
The Monkey Says: There is no word as of right now regarding the severity of the injury. The Angels have to hope that it isn’t serious because he is pretty much all they have in terms of starting pitching depth and right now Ervin Santana is a huge question mark, C.J. Wilson is struggling and Dan Haren’s back could start acting up on him at any instant.
The Story: Right now, Jered Weaver is the best in baseball because of his 15-1 record.
The Monkey Says: This is from old friend(?) Lyle Spencer and I link to it to illustrate my earlier point that some of the prehistoric writers in the BBWAA get completely hung up on Weaver’s record. He just categorically declares Weaver the best without even really considering the credentials of anyone else. He even talks about how Weaver dominates in a different way, but really, he is the same pitcher he was last season and so is Verlander.
The Story: Mike Trout is blowing away the field when it comes to performance in the age 20-season.
The Monkey Says: I’ve seen this OPS+ list before and Trout used to be further down the list, now he is out in front by a healthy margin which means he is only getting better as the season carries on. Just think how scary good he could be five years from now.
The Story: Just because Mike Trout is great at 21 does not mean that Randal Grichuk should be mocked.
The Monkey Says: You know how I said before that 85% of the Trout posts from yesterday were just cheap attempts at pageviews? This is definitely not one of those. Poor Randal Grichuk is always going to be the answer to a trivia question because the Angels chose to pick him before Trout when they had back-to-back picks. Grichuk could still develop into a quality starter, and he is blowing up in High-A ball the last few weeks, but he seems like he is behind because Trout is such an amazing exception to the normal development path of a star prospect.
The Story: Mike Trout will “repeat the American League” next season.
The Monkey Says: For the record, Mike Trout would be better at baseball than Batman.
The Story: Mark Trumbo is negotiating a tough stretch.
The Monkey Says: Oddly, there is no mention made of his back/rib injury which certainly seems like it could be a major issue for him given the force with which he swings. Maybe I am just seeing things, but he sure likes like he is in discomfort after some of his bigger hacks the last few games. He has probably been expanding his zone a bit too much as well, but that just be a symptom of him trying to cheat and get out ahead of fastballs as a way to compensate for his injury. Giving him a few days off to get right probably isn’t the worst idea.
The Story: Mike Trout ranks as the top center fielder in baseball.
The Monkey Says: Considering that he is probably the best player in all of baseball regardless of position right now, that isn’t really much of a surprise.
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